Posts tagged ‘election’

How could today’s Word Nerd blog be about anything other than the word debate, after last night’s “fisticuffs” between presidential contenders President Obama and Governor Romney.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary says the word debate comes to us from the Old French in the 14th Century, both as a verb and a noun. The 15th Century brought its usage as a formal dispute.

De- means “down, down from” and even “to the bottom, completely.”

Batter comes from batre, which comes from the Latin battuere, meaning “to beat, to strike.”

So a debate is all about beating down your opponent’s ideas.

Or striking down to the bottom of the issue at stake.

However you want to see it.

[My snap opinion after seeing the debate referred to as “fisticuffs”: Where are the fisticuffs? I enjoyed seeing some actual debate, rather than the usual joint-appearance-called-a-debate. I saw some vociferous speech and some disobedience to the time rules, but I saw no name-calling or even harsh words. Of course, I’m a former competitive debater, so maybe I’m skewed. Here’s an awesome video that explains why I feel this way. It’s short and well worth the view.]

A toddler stands at the edge of the pool,
She doesn’t care her Daddy’s looking over there,
She just knows he’ll catch her when she…
JUMPS!
He does.

America, as a nation, stood at the edge of the pool and jumped away from the watchful eyes of our Father, but there is good news! Like the Daddy in the poem, God can catch us in his loving, strong arms.

God, unlike the Daddy in the poem, always has his eyes on us. God is not in control only when the conservatives are in power in our country.

Obama may get some things done that we don’t like, especially in the moral arena, but I believe God will surprise him by staying his hand in many areas. God has his eyes on us.

I trust the strong moral leadership of many of the men and women who will serve in Congress and the Courts in the next four years. This is a democracy, and those men and women will spend the next four years butting their ideas up against Obama’s That’s a good thing for America, in the end. God has his eyes on us.

Pray for those servants; life will be an uphill fight for them over the next four years. Pray for America as Obama seeks to unleash the Freedom of Choice Act. It’s a Pandora’s Box we ultimately will wish were shut. Pray for Pres-elect Obama.

My dh told me this morning he is feeling hopeless because of the election.

Assuming the polls are right (big assumption!), Obama will make very serious changes to the moral and social fabric of our country. Financial, too. That’s because of the media and their woe-is-me tendency–which, by the way, I think is a major contributing factor to the financial troubles in our country.

But God is in control. He knows already who our next president is and what changes he will make in our country.

Actually, that’s good news.

Very good.

Pray with us!

10.11.08 poem–based on 1 Timothy 6:6 and Philippians 1:21

PRAYER
King Jesus,
Help me to hear your Voice,
Hearing, help me to love,
Loving, help me to trust,
Trusting, help me to obey,
Obeying, help me to know…
…contentment in your calling

HABAKKUK 1:5–"Look at the nations and watch–and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.

Blessings!

Novel progress: 6,396 words. I’ve written 7 scenes out of 48-52. Still have a few scenes to outline.

National Novel Writing Month is not Flylady compatible in one way. It’s one big month-long gorge of writing, and Fly Lady teaches "I can do anything for 20 minutes."

On the other hand, NaNoWriMo is like Flylady in other ways. For instance, she teaches baby steps. And that is what NaNoWriMo does. It breaks up the big novel-writing task into 30 steps of 1,667 words each.

Another teaching of Flylady is the building of habits. NaNoWriMo is also teaching that (unless you write 5,000 words on 10 days instead of 1,667 daily). The ideas and words are flying around my head, now that I’ve developed the habit of writing daily.

NaNoWrMo encourages you to just jump in, not worrrying about perfect results, but rather worrying about the process. Fly Lady might as well be called the Anti-Perfect Lady. This is the core of her teaching. At the root of perfectionism is fear, she truthfully says. And fear is at the root of a writer who is not writing. Look how much I’ve connected writing with fear in this blog. (That’s the benefit of journaling–you learn things about yourself.)

Hey, the worst thing that happens if you don’t clean your house perfectly is that it looks better, and that’s a blessing. The worst that happens if you don’t get 50,000 words in a month, or complete your novel, is that you’ve stretched your writerly skills and had fun doing it.

The push to edit and polish (not perfect!) the novel necessarily has to come AFTER the rough draft is done, if you’re going to get 50,000 words accomplished. Anti-Perfectionism! I’m working on teaching dd to "just throw it" when she’s facing a new gymnastics trick. By her own admission, she was holding back for fear of not doing the tricks perfectly. Now she’s doing beautifully, pushing herself at each practice. And I’m following her example in the writing arena with NaNoWriMo. Thanks for the example!

I better go put it into practice.

Blessings!

My husband is fasting for the election today and tomorrow. I’ll be praying, but not fasting, since NaNoWriMo is not the right time to do something new.

Of course, all the elections are important, but I truly believe this election is a fork in the road, a bell-weather election that will determine the worldview, the foundation, on which our country will proceed in the future.